A Lengthy Hike
by thinktankdragon
Summary: It was just a simple rescue mission: the pilots were well trained, the Grimm were few and small, and the hunters-in-training were good enough. But the airship still went down, and its occupants with it. It'll take their combined power, intelligence, and knowledge to survive the Grimm infested forest of Forever Fall.
1. Chapter 1

The Bullhead was filled with smoke, choking the terrified occupants. Aside from the air rushing by outside the broken ship, the moment was silent. The tumultuous fire, which ripped out most of the ship's starboard iron siding, burnt skin, hair, and clothes but especially licked and bit at the ship's pilot's nape and back. Everyone knew that in any moment the ground would catch up to them and then anything could happen.

The brunette onboard swore inwardly, his neck's muscles so contracted that he couldn't speak. The Blonde's mind was filled with images going too fast to comprehend; his stomach, which normally would have been a giant issue, was emptied long ago into the back corner of the transport. The able but inexperience pilot's hands clenched the joysticks, but he was frozen with fear and could only watch as his viewports filled more and more with the bright red forest below. The rabbit haphazardly gripped a random seat for all her might, while the other hunters were tossed about the cabin. Suddenly, the ship hit something outside on the starboard side, throwing everyone violently to the port side. The brunette, blonde, and rabbit were immediately knocked unconscious against the metal interior of the Bullhead. The blonde hit one of the few remaining I-beams and went ragdoll with blood squirting from a giant crack in the side of his head. The brunette safely bonked the back of his head and fell into one of the Bullhead's more comfortable bucket seats. The rabbit fell feet first into the wall inadvertently forcing her left knee into her nose, shattering it easily and bruising her kneecap, the blunt force dropping her into the dreamless sleep.

With the basest memory of flight school popping into his head, the pilot tried to pull the port side back up; so that they wouldn't roll once they landed and cause even more damage to the Bullhead. He almost made it work but the ship still slammed into the earth a little tilted. The broken glass ports let loose crimson earth shoot in as the ship skidded across the forest floor. The fire was starved thanks to the loose soil and the sudden change in wind direction. Finally, the Bullhead lost enough momentum and bumped into a thin, lanky ebony tree trunk.

The pilot sat in his cockeyed chair for a many, many minutes, his heart beating faster than an engine. A few minutes after that and the man tried to open his hand and take them off the sticks, but the muscles wouldn't respond. A few minutes later and he tried again, this time his hands responded but also screamed in agony. The pilot yelped from the unexpected soreness, and sat back into his seat. As he laid back he felt his still warm, burnt skin stick to his leather chair and too quickly he leaned forward; he hissed from the sensation of his back getting pulled off the sticky, sweaty chair. The man chuckled lightly before muttering a blue streak of swears into the sky.

Eventually the hardy pilot removed himself from the cockpit and shuffled to the passenger's area. He looked about and took in the scene.

The blonde boy looked terrible; the pilot stared at him as he tried to recall his last name… Bark…or…Carp…it couldn't be Fart but it was definitely similar to it.

There was a blood splatter on the I-beam above the boy and a large pool of blood in front of him. He could see a small jet of blood occasionally pulse out of his head through his ear and join the pool on the floor. He knew that was the worst injury endured by the three passengers, so he stumbled to the boy first. The mace-wielder looked fine the pilot could even hear a soft snore escape the brunette's covered face. And the Faunus looked OK, if not a little torn up what with the bloated nose and whatnot.

The pilot kneeled in front of the boy with a grunt, ripping off a large portion of his own shirt, balling it up and pressing it to the boy's wound as he did. Blood slowly soaked through as the pilot's makeshift bandage, so he forced the boy's head backwards so that the wound was facing upwards. Hopefully that meant the heart would have a harder time forcing blood up that way and would help, at least that's what he figured. The pilot didn't know, HE wasn't a doctor, He was a pilot!

As the pilot held the slowly soaking piece of shirt to the boy's probably soon to be fatal wound, he looked around, he was too shaken still to really get invested in a hunter-in-training's life so he wasn't anxious.

He spied a medicinal cabinet above the boy, the plastic cover on it was melted through was the metal box inside wasn't. Without releasing his hold on the boy, the pilot reached and grabbed the box he then put it on the open seat beside the blonde's head and opened it.

Inside were two large rolls of gauze, lots of bandages, and some covered syringes, as well as other strange objects. He pulled out one of the rolls of gauze, and slowly wrapped it around the blonde's head keeping the shirt still over the wound to catch the most blood. When he finished that he took his hand off the boy's head and pulled the metal med-kit into his lap, inside, along with the supplies, was a folded scroll, the pilot pulled it out and opened it. On the first screen were two folders: one named "Wounds and Infections w/ Symptoms," the other titled "Temporary Fixes for Wounds and Infections." The man clicked on the first and looked for what the boy had gotten cursed with during the crash.

He found the type of wound which the boy had gotten, but it didn't look good. It would take all night just to stabilize him.

The pilot begrudgingly didn't sleep that night.

 _ **To be Continued…**_


	2. Chapter 2

The rabbit Faunus woke to the sound of heavy snores and labored breathing. She was conscious but still could only see black, when she realized her eyes were still closed she attempted to open them. Her muscles responded slowly, and the shattered wreck of the Bullhead was what first greeted her uncovered eyes. She looked around but couldn't see much from her vantage point on the floor. So she slowly lifted herself and put her knees under her, she could feel that her knees had gotten hit by something because of a dull ache that wailed when she put weight on it. The rabbit grit her teeth though and stood herself up, ignoring her body telling her to stop.

The Faunus could tell that they had crashed, the huntress in her paled at the understanding of their vulnerability. She looked around again trying to take in the damage and figure out a way protect herself. She heard snores from behind her, turning, the first thing which she saw was the fresh blood that was splattered on one of the ship's supports. She then looked to the right and saw another hunter snoring and dreaming of something nice. The Faunus snorted with a grimace and looked past him.

'Yeah you just wait there, Cardin, don't worry I got this' She thought sassily.

On the ground in front of her was a large pool of blood, she could see that something had been dragged through it, there were also boot prints that followed the drag lines. Both the boot prints and the drag lines exited through the gaping hole in the side of the Bullhead. The rabbit decided to investigate that before looking for any supplies. She stepped around the sleeping hunter and ventured outside.

She saw just a little ways out, beneath the crimson shade, a human shaped shadow hunched over what looked like a dead body. The rabbit jogged over.

She came up to what looked like an impromptu surgery, she could clearly see that the blonde who lay on the ground was being recovered from a nasty gash on the side of his head. The man who sat over him was wearing what was left of a pilot's uniform, the rest was burnt and charred, he was the one who was breathing hard. The Faunus could see that the pilot's back was pink and raw.

"What happened" she asked him.

The pilot paused, turned around slowly and looked at her dumbly. "Are you kidding me?"

"…No"

The pilot looked her up and down then turned back around, "We…I crashed the Bullhead."

"Oh so you mean that over there wasn't a normal landing" she motioned over her shoulder to the smoking Bullhead while chuckling. She was still a little lightheaded and kind of out-of-it.

The pilot started then stood, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"Because you have blood caked onto your face, your nose looks like it kissed a wall at high speed, which it kind of did, and as serious as this situation is, you're laughing it up."

The girl lifted her hand to see if the pilot was right, her fingers came away dipped in dried blood.

"Oh, would you look at that" she said before staggering to her knees.

The pilot looked over his shoulder while pouring a clear liquid over the boy's wound, "Do you not like blood" he asked?

The girl looked past her fingers and met his eyes, "No, I don't mind blood, just so long as it's not my own."

The pilot shook his head, showing that he understood, before he looked back at his "patient" the wound was now bubbling as a result of the liquid.

"Okay step 4 is done, only 96 left to go" the pilot said with a momentary smirk. He then looked over to the scroll beside him and turned it back on, he clicked on one of the folders and scrolled down and clicked on something else. He scrolled down after that and expanded some text that said "Step 5."

After he read what "Step 5" said to do he put the scroll down and turned back to the blonde.

"So what's your name" the pilot asked the girl who was gingerly pressing on her nose while grimacing in pain.

The girl looked at him for a second. "Velvet…Velvet Scarlitina."

"Okay Velvet Scarlitina, since you are mostly unharmed, if you could back to the Bullhead and get whatever you need out, I am going to need you out here with me."

"Why" Velvet asked.

"Because I can't protect myself from Grimm and make sure this kid doesn't croak on me at the same time; I need protection" the pilot answered matter-o-factly.

"Oh, well…OK then" Velvet answered softly.

She jumped up and strolled back to the ship, went in and grabbed her gear. On the way out she could see the other male hunter starting to wake up, she quickly jumped past him and went over to the pilot.

As she walked over the pilot looked back to her and remarked, "Your aura is already taking care of your nose, you're luckier than this guy" he said while gesturing to the blonde in front of him. Velvet sat down cross-legged, so that she wouldn't hurt her already sore knees, next to him.

"Do you know why his aura isn't healing that gash he's got" she asked.

The pilot, without looking at her, reached for his scroll again and said "this medical tutorial says that it's because he's unconscious, aura can't heal bad wounds like this if you're unconscious, especially without outside help." He shrugged while looking for "Step 6" on the scroll.

Velvet looked absentmindedly into the forest, before she reached into her pile of stuff and pulled out a little box with a heart on the side. She changed her grip on it and attached it to a small hook on her belt.

"Oh, by the way, what's your name" she asked mutely.

The pilot didn't respond, he reached for a large roll of gauze and pulled a long strip of it off.

Velvet tried again a little louder, "Hey mister, what's your name?"

The pilot stopped what he was doing and looked at her before saying "My name…my name is B—."

He was interrupted by a loud groan which came from the ship, followed by heavy footfalls and the sounds of falling objects. Both he and Velvet looked at the ship to see a large teenaged boy with the build of a tank and the face of a baby stumble out.

He shuffled over to their little group while feeling the back of his head and checking his fingers for blood.

By the time he got over to where Velvet and the pilot sat and stared at him, he seemed satisfied that he was medically A-OK.

He looked at the pilot, grimace, and said with a tough voice "Nice landing, Fly-boy." While jerking his thumb over his shoulder at the Bullhead.


	3. Chapter 3

The large teen held his smirk and looked down at the man wearing the pilot's outfit, who seemed to be attempting a surgery on the Arc kid. The man looked at him inquisitively, dropped his gaze to Velvet and scoffed saying in an incredulous voice, "Is this kid for real?!" Velvet pulled her ears to her cheeks, out of the boy's reach, but didn't answer.

The pilot, without missing a beat, looked back up at the boy with the slight Mohawk and told him to go grab his stuff from the now billowing wreckage. The large boy looked behind his back through the smoke, "No way I'm going back in there, especially just 'cuz you want me to."

The pilot, who had gone back to cleaning the boy's wound, clicked on an icon on the scroll beside him and muttered under his breath " _I'm on step 16 goin' on 17…do doo do do do doooo… I'll take care of you."_

"Look, I need all the protection I can out here while I'm healing this kid up, with both you and Velvet out here, it'll help everybody out, so please...just do it"

The boy snorted, " _moron,"_ to the pilot then directed his unwanted attention at Velvet, "I see the freak survived." Velvet sighed quietly and shrunk closer to the pilot, away from the boy. The pilot noticed this and stopped performing on the boy whom he still did not the name of, he looked between the boy who was leaning against the tree trunk and Velvet.

He could see that they had history and he spoke up when he said

"Listen buddy, I don't know what you were able to get away with saying back at Beacon, but as of right now, where we are right now, it's either team up or get eaten so you don't say anything like THAT from now on…please?"

The boy stared at him, "FINE flyboy, you're the boss, but don't be surprised when she starts humping you're leg" he said while pushing off the tree and heading back to the bullhead. The pilot stopped what he was doing and snorted in shock at the boy's flippant remark, rolling his eyes before getting back to work.

Velvet, who had up to this point been nervously picking at the lock of her box-thingy, while still looking down at her feet said, "Actually, you probably wouldn't be eaten."

The pilot looked up at her.

Velvet continued and looked up at the pilot's face, "The Grimm don't often eat their human or faunus prey after they kill them."

The pilot listened to what she said then looked back to the blonde, who had by now stopped gushing blood. "Cool" he remarked uninterestedly.

Velvet sighed " _just trying to lighten the mood"_ , stood to stretch and spoke cooly to the pilot, "what's your name sir, I would rather call you something other than Pilot."

The man looked up, and for the first time in an hour or so stood up to talk to her, "call me Bob" he said with a smile and an outstretched hand. Velvet took the man's hand saying, "pleasure to meet you Bob" but did not let his hand go after that.

Velvet pulled on his hand, bringing him in close proximity and at her eyelevel, "its nice what you just did, standing up for me and all, but you don't need to do it again, let the idiot spew his hate and move on, no need bringing too much attention to it right now. I'll be gone in about three years now, anyways, so it doesn't really change anything either way."

The pilot was surprised at Velvet's grip and pull and his initial reaction complemented his surprise, but by the time Velvet stopped talking he was able to respond with respect and tact.

"I didn't do it for you, the more insults get thrown around the more the Grimm will be attracted to our crash and that's bad for everyone, its not all about you ya know?" Bob pulled back with a smile on his face, "however, that is a very mature outlook on bullying, so good on you for that."

Velvet's face went through a myriad of changes, going through surprise, dissapointment, and finally landing on straight understanding. "Thank you, Bob" she said with a bright smile.

After their pleasant exchange Bob the pilot sat back down in front of the bandaged head of the yet-to-be-named blonde kid, while Velvet still stood absentmindedly.

After a few seconds of waiting Velvet started to walk away, calling behind her, "I've got to go to the loo, don't die or be rescued while I'm gone."

Bob didn't say anything in response instead just raised a thumb in agreement while with his other hand zoomed in on the next step on the medical scroll.

After a few minutes and many medical procedural steps later, the brunette stumbled out of the sputtering flame pile that used to be the bullhead. He tromped over to Bob with a small bag of stuff over his shoulder, dropping it in front of the unconscious student in front of him.

"There, happy now, flyboy, my stuff is out of the wreck and I am in the open" he said mockingly.

Bob looked up at him, nodded and said, "thank you, now I just need you to keep watch until Velvet gets back, there are sure to be some Grimm coming by soon."


End file.
